


Architects and Engineers

by Xhafsn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Architects, Engineers, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28851714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xhafsn/pseuds/Xhafsn
Summary: One of the oldest jokes amongst STEM majors and professionals, now applied to our favorite demigods.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Leo Valdez, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

So these last few weeks have made more sense than anything else in my life. I finally have a clue on what happened when I was little. Turns out, my relatives are some kind of fucked up. My dad is a god, a pretty ugly one at that, and he gave me fire powers. So not only do I never have any luck with the ladies (not that I ever stop trying), I literally scare away the mamacitas with my hotness, not the good kind. 

Oh well. 

So now that I've got myself well-acquainted with Camp Half-Blood, I've began work on the Argo II, the ship I'm going to sail to fight Queen Dirt Face. Well, between long hours building the ship, I have to consult the rest of the crew to figure things out. Piper and Jason are with me for sure, but I don't exactly get along with one person I highly suspect will be part of the crew. That person is Annabeth Chase.

Now, let me tell you some things about Annabeth. For one, she's hot. Like, really smoking hot. The entire Aphrodite cabin can forget about looking like her, hot damn. But, no one in their right mind would hit on her, especially not me. For one, she's five whole inches taller than me and can pummel me to the ground. She's no mamacita, she's a mamaciosa! For another, she's got a boyfriend, and the two of them are camp legends. Percy Jackson and her. I keep hearing about all the things they did together. Supposedly, Hera/Tia Callida swapped Percy and Jason so the two demigod camps can meet on peaceful terms. In any case, that's made for an extremely cranky daughter of a war goddess. Everyone always talks about how smart she is, but she doesn't strike me as particularly intelligent. She's definitely got those Athena traits, but I guess Hephaestus kids aren't far behind if at all.

None of those are the worst thing about her, however. The worst has got to be her career aspiration. I found that out the hard way. 

I went looking for her after she didn't show up to an agreed meeting with Jason and Piper. She does this all the time: work in her sketchbook all day and forgets the time. I made my way up to the Athena cabin and knock on the door. A guy named Malcolm let me in.

"Hey, Malcolm," I said. "I'm looking for Annabeth?"

"Right," he said. "You might want to check on her yourself."

So I went up to her office. Her door was locked. I knock. Twice. Four times. Eight. No response. No worries, I'll just pick the lock. It's not like she's changing in there, so I'll just open the door myself.

I got my lock-picking set and got to work. I open the door and see Annabeth hunched over her desk. This is a sight I've seen several times in the last few weeks. Annabeth really needs a clock in this room. Usually, I didn't look at what she was working on. I'm normally too distracted to even bother looking. This time was an exception. I briefly glanced down as I was going to tap her on the shoulder. 

The first thing I saw was intricate drawings of what appears to be support beams. She's got dimensions, measurements, and various constructor lines on blue paper. I immediately realize she's working on some kind of blueprint, not unlike what I use. However, the things she drew were not like any of my blueprints. They're buildings. So Annabeth is an amateur architect. That's pretty surprising.

It was at this exact moment that I decide to actually look at what is on the paper. Immediately, red flags go off everywhere. My mind raced as I noted every single thing she's doing completely wrong. Oh my gods, her drawings are pure mental torture. 

Just a short list of things she's doing either wrongly or impractically include excessive and/or poorly placed support beams, useless overhangs, difficult or irregular geometric structures, shapes that can't be constructed with tessellated triangles, and many other engineering nightmares. 

"Ew," I said out loud despite myself.

Annabeth immediately snaps her head up and looks at me. 

"What?" She says. "Do I smell bad or something? I swear I showered-"

"What the Hades is this?" I ask, pointing at her blueprints. 

"Oh, these?" she asks. "Blueprints. You're a child of Hephaestus. Don't you work with these as well?"

"No, I mean what's on there," I say. "Why do you have like 10,000 support beams here? You only need a few. What's up with this stupid overhang? And seriously? A pentagon? Do you know how hard it is to build such an overhang?"

Annabeth narrows her eyes at me, taking offense at my statements.

"What makes you think you know more about my designs than I do?" Annabeth says, half-yelling.

"The math," I said flatly. "Come on now, Annabeth. You see that beam right here? And that truss there? You can easily model the forces on this part of the building with this differential."

I quickly wrote the equation on a nearby chalkboard.

"We both know PDEs are nasty, but with this truss already here, you already have a boundary condition, so it simplifies to this ODE, which clearly shows how redundant these-"

Annabeth simply rolled up her blueprints.

"Engineers," she sighed. "They don't have any creativity or eyes for aesthetics."

"Woah now," I said. "What are you gonna do, add ten million support beams to the Argo II for decoration?"

"Forget it," Annabeth says. "Let's just meet with Jason and Piper."

Ever since that day, I knew there will be some hurdles in working with Annabeth. 


	2. More Argo II Shenanigans

**Annabeth POV**

Today is the moment of truth. I'm going to see if Percy is really at the Roman camp. Jason recently got all of his memories back enough to show us the way. My hopes are riding high that he'll be there.

Of course, that won't stop Leo and I from arguing so much. When his siblings aren't working on the ship, the next person he asks is me. And these discussions usually end in an argument, followed by lots of curt words to communicate quantities and other necessary discourse.

Leo is no typical child of Hephaestus. For one thing, he's incredibly smart, I'll give him that. It's possible he's smarter than many of my siblings. His ability to do math in his head makes me feel threatened sometimes. I can hardly solve a six-variable partial differential equation on paper. Leo can do that in his head! For another, he's suspiciously like a child of Hermes. He has a propensity for pranks, gags, and other acts of mischief. That's still not the worst thing about him. The absolute worst is the fact that he's an engineer at heart 

For instance, yesterday, when I went to the engine room of the Argo II to check on him, his prank involved mechanical spiders. I freaked the fuck out instantly. I instantly made a mad dash to the door, but it automatically locked and closed on me. I desperately looked around, trying to now to smash whatever spiders are there. As I tried to stomp on one, I suddenly realized there were, in fact, no spiders at all. Flameboy used tricks of the light to make it seem like there are spiders everywhere! Nerve of that boy.

When he's not pranking, he's criticizing my design choices. I suggested several times that there should be more aesthetic features on the Argo II like support beams and a Greek-styled building for a captain's quarters. He'll immediately go on and on about how the aerodynamics of the ship will have to be accounted for and how much extra weight will be added and how much longer it'll take to calculate. Can't an architect dream for once? It's not like I don't know the math. I want to leave my mark on the design of the Argo II, especially after all the time I spent helping him calculating truss forces, engine thrust, and whatever else (why do physics apply for a magical ship anyway? It fucking flies!) to build this. The least he can do is incorporate my own contributions. Maybe I'll get Percy to do some convincing, although I have a feeling they'll get along a little too well.


End file.
